The project aims to reduce the risk and impact of natural disasters by contributing to the enhancement of territorial resilience and preparedness, in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. Drawing from the 2016 earthquakes in the Apennines of Central Italy, the research investigates new approaches and methods to support policy makers and local authorities in risk-sensitive planning and in the elaboration of building-back-better strategies. Characterized by intense and recurrent seismic activity, the inland area of Central Italy presents many other factors of vulnerability, including hydrogeological instability, depopulation, lack of adequate
infrastructure and services, weak economy and depressed labour market. The fragility of the region is due to critical issues already present before the earthquake. The most evident are the unpreparedness of communities and the inefficacy of local governments, which weaken the affected area and hinder the post-event recovery. The project
adopts an interdisciplinary approach to tackle these problems and address risk reduction based on three main pillars: the physical risk (geological and engineering); the social and economic needs of the population (to ensure the minimum level of social services of general interest); and the legislative system (ordinary and extraordinary).
PRE-PLAN will develop in particular a Decision Support System for preventing planning tailored to inland areas, to foster regional resilience and enhance the preparedness and coping capacity of local communities. The effectiveness of the system will be tested in a pilot study of Marche region. The output of PRE-PLAN consist in recommendations and guidelines for policy makers, responsible for territorial preparedness and resilience to disasters, transferable to other comparable areas of Italy and Europe. PRE-PLAN covers therefore the recovery, normality, prevention and preparedness phases of the disaster management cycle.